Nanoelectromechanical (NEM) switches have been proposed by many for non-volatile memory applications because of their low power consumption and nanosecond range switching speeds, which translate to write or erase speeds several orders of magnitude faster than NAND Flash. NEM switches have been also suggested as an answer to the high leakage current limitation of scaling CMOS transistors further. NEM switches offer zero leakage, high sub-threshold slopes and are an attractive for scaling as well as low power computing. Furthermore, NEM switches are able to withstand harsh environments (high temperatures and radiation dosages), and such properties may prove invaluable for computing or memory in automotive, offshore, or space applications.
A major challenge of NEM switches has been their density—horizontally oriented cantilever NEM switches with CMOS-compatible processes have been demonstrated for memory use, but these traditionally incur a large area footprint, making them expensive for memory or computing usage. Vertically oriented switches have been proposed previously based on multiwall carbon nanotubes (MWCNTs), but the mass fabrication of these remains difficult and costly.